


Dead to Me

by TheMondayChild



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-31
Updated: 2014-10-31
Packaged: 2018-05-27 08:17:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6276664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMondayChild/pseuds/TheMondayChild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whoever thought an innocent little thing like a photo shoot in a cemetery could go so wrong? Certainly not Kagome Higurashi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dead to Me

**Author's Note:**

> Written to "Dude, Where's My Skin?" by Schoolyard Heroes. I've loved this band since I was like 14 and Ryann Donnelly is my future wife. They broke up and broke my heart, but you should check them out anyway. This idea came to me recently and I abruptly decided to write it all out and make it my very first Halloween story. No editing or anything, which is spooky for me, but whatever. Hope you enjoy!

Kagome had always been especially weak when it came to artists and older men. The ability to create something, anything interesting was not a skill she possessed, although she desired it like nothing else. It absolutely fascinated her and always had. As for older men, they were just plain sexy. So when Hojo, the hot photographer senior, asked her to model for him, she of course agreed, even though the suggested location made her raise a fine brow in amused wonder.

"A graveyard?" she asked, and he nodded. Kagome laughed, she couldn't help it. Hojo, the ever perky and ridiculously likeable popular sportsman, president of the Yearbook and Photography clubs and more than certainly his class's valedictorian, wanted to take pictures of an underclass[wo]man in some freaky graveyard.

"I'm doing a series on humanity and the problems we face. Death is the biggest and most common. It's universal," he explained, his blue eyes studying her face for her reaction. "The juxtaposition of life and death, light and dark, youth and decay."

Kagome nodded. It wasn't like the concept hadn't been done before (it had been done to _death_ , in her opinion, pun most certainly intended), but it would give her something to do on Halloween other than hand out candy and take her little brother trick-or-treating. Plus, she'd get to spend some time with Hojo, whom she'd been after since her freshman year.

"Sure!" she chirped happily. "But why me?"

His eyes flashed at her assent and he grinned at her, one of his hands suddenly coming up to stroke her cheekbone under the pretense of pushing back her bangs. "You're one of the most alive people I've ever seen, Higurashi. I can see it in your eyes. There's a spark there, something special, something that hasn't yet reached its full potential but soon will."

Her gray eyes widened and she could feel herself blush a bit. "So half an hour before midnight?" she murmured, suddenly unable to speak at a normal volume.

Hojo nodded and grinned, waving cheerily at her as the bell rang and he jogged off to his class. Holding a hand to her cheek, Kagome watched him go, heart pounding in her chest.

**O\o/O**

Though the long, white cotton nightgown was cliché, Kagome wore it without protest. It was slightly sheer, and she had herself elected to not wear anything under it, so when she stepped out from behind the tall grave monument Hojo had decided to use as the background, her companion's eyes widened and his cheeks and ears turned bright red as he stared at her. He had snuck her in earlier, grabbing one of the metal fence posts and yanking it out of place, the opening just large enough for her to squeeze through. She wondered if he had broken it or just knew about it. Did he come here a lot?

"Should I have put make-up on?" she asked, slightly unnerved by his silence. Truth be told, she was wearing some mascara and had deftly lined the inner rim of her upper eyelid, and the dark pink of her lips was enhanced by a clear gloss, but she was otherwise make-up free.

"N-no!" he assured her, shaking his head. "You're perfect. Just, um, maybe push your hair back a bit," he muttered, coming closer to her and brushing her hair off her shoulders, leaving only a few tendrils behind. "There," he said, satisfied.

Kagome smiled to herself. Now there was nothing but the semi-sheer clinging cotton hiding her from him. Her nipples hardened both from the cool air and the rather naughty direction her thoughts were moving in.

"Can you lean back a bit, just like that, yeah, now turn your head to the right and look normal, just like you're walking through the halls at school…"

Doing as she asked, she let her mind go blank and her body relax. That seemed to be okay with him, and he took pictures for a while, either not noticing or not caring about her intermittent shivering, and then he stopped, grinning and a bit out of breath, although why she didn't know.

"Are we done?" she asked quietly, almost afraid to disturb the solemnity of the place with more noise.

"Not yet," he replied in the same tone. Hojo stood in front of her and leaned in until their bodies were almost touching and she was pressed against the marble monument. Slowly, he dragged the nightgown's flimsy strap down her right shoulder, glancing up at her hooded eyes before pulling it down all the way and revealing her naked breast.

Kagome closed the distance between them, her lips meeting his. He responded eagerly, groaning into her mouth. She wrinkled her nose a bit, not liking how wet of a kisser he was or that he tasted of stale Juicy Fruit. But it didn't matter too much, not when his hands went to her breasts, keeping the left one covered by the nightgown. It felt forbidden and sexy and dark and a little evil to be rejoicing in the privileges of life directly above ones who would never have form again. A feeling of foreboding pulsed through her, momentarily overwhelming the arrow of lust in her gut, and she whimpered and pulled away, intending on asking him to take them to his car instead.

"Don't be scared, Higurashi," Hojo soothed, laying little kisses along her forehead. "There's no one here but us. I've been watching you since you started attending high school. I've wanted this since back then. So much…"

Knowing there was nothing she could do when he kept saying things like that, Kagome directed his head to her bared breast where he sucked hungrily before pinching her other nipple, surprising her into releasing a loud, pleasured cry. In the aftermath of her noise, everything went even quieter, and the air itself seemed to pulse with the silence. Hojo obviously didn't feel it, still lapping away at her, but she tensed, wondering what was wrong with the place around them.

"Close your eyes, Higurashi," Hojo said softly, his fingers trailing long her ribs. "Don't be nervous. I know this is your first time and all, but it's not so bad."

"I-I'm okay," Kagome whispered back, struggling not to smile as her eyes drifted shut. It was most certainly not her first time, but she supposed there was no harm in letting him think it was. He went back to what he was doing and Kagome sighed, somewhat disenchanted by his behavior. His fingers probed her down below and she spread her legs, giving him better access.

Suddenly, Hojo was gone as if he was never there. Kagome's eyes shot open to see Hojo being held by the collar, his feet kicking a good distance above the ground. A man was glaring at him, his dark eyes venomous as he flung the boy away from him. Hojo scrambled away on his hands and knees, sparing Kagome a single glance before running wildly away. Stunned, Kagome looked back to the man, who was advancing on her. She felt rooted to the ground, but Hojo's scream of her name from somewhere far off brought her back to reality and she ran, only to promptly fall to her knees when something held her back. Whipping her head around, she saw the now muddy hem of the nightgown snagged on the six-inch high metal fence that surrounded the grave she and Hojo had been about to fuck on. It wouldn't give, being wrapped around several times in addition to thoroughly pierced, and Kagome, with shaking hands, decided to just forget modesty and leave the nightgown.

Rough hands ripped it from her body before she could.

"All you fucking kids," the man growled, pressing her back to his chest, "think this entire place is a joke, just another place. Nothing is sacred, not even a piece of land where the grass is made green by tears."

"I-I'm sorry," she said, her voice barely more than a breath. Her body was frozen and she was freezing, the air unseasonably cool. But he was warm, this man who had unclothed her, the man who was pressing a clothed but very obvious erection into her back.

"No, you're not!" he shouted. It seemed to her that he was the only one who could speak, breathe, even think in this place without it feeling wrong. It belonged to him, or he to it. "Sluts like you can't feel sorry without being forced."

She tumbled to the ground, having been abruptly released. Kagome didn't even bother to reach out and break her fall. She had wronged this place, she had been warned, and now she was going to be punished.

"Look." It was a command, and Kagome did so. She assumed he wanted her to look at the grave monument, and she did. "It belonged to a little girl. She was four and she died on Christmas. Do you even wonder why or how? Does it not matter to you since she lived over a hundred years ago?"

Kagome shivered, both from the chill and from the thought that she had been about to violate a child's eternal resting place without a care. Fog was coming in, thicker and thicker. She could only see thanks to the streetlights outside the cemetery, but the glow was quickly becoming obscured. She turned to look at the man, her eyes admiring his broad shoulders and muscular arms and chest even as he neared her, malignant contempt in his every step. His long black hair, almost longer than hers, fell in his face as he swooped down to pick up Hojo's forgotten camera. He turned it on and looked through the pictures, a smirk coming onto his face. Finally, he looked at her, his gaze feeling so powerful it was like he was touching her.

"Your boyfriend takes a lot of pictures of you when you aren't looking." His voice was husky and hoarse and she wanted to hear it more and more.

"He's not my boyfriend," she revealed, not caring what he thought of her now.

"Then he's just another opportunist." He strolled over to her and she stared at him, heart pounding like never before, wondering what he was going to do to her and for how long. Her tongue darted out to wet her bottom lip and her breathing picked up speed, her chest rising and falling more obviously. The man kept eye contact with her, letting her glimpse his private anger, loneliness, and frustration. It made her breathless. He reached out his hand and grabbed her by the hair, twisting it around his fist slowly, meeting no resistance. "Come here," he murmured, and she allowed herself to be tugged upwards and along, her feet growing damp from the dew, contrasting with the aching fire of her abused scalp.

The lovingly strict lines of a mausoleum slowly became clearer as they trudged forward. Normally, a stone door blocked off the inside from view, but it lay on the ground in front of the structure, broken in pieces, the worn away outer edges showing its age and telling her it had collapsed all on its own with no help from zombies or vampires or anything else her mind in a fever of fear could conjure up.

He flung her inside and she nearly tripped, but was pushed forward onto the center tomb before she could regain her footing. Her knees scraped against some elaborate engraving but she didn't notice, too concentrated on listening for the sound of his footsteps. They never came. For a second, she panicked, thinking he meant to shut her inside forever, but then his lips were against her ear.

"Death turns you on, doesn't it?"

Kagome didn't know what to say to that, didn't even know if it was false. She turned her head and saw him standing above her with the camera, an evil look in his eyes. There was certainly a possibility that death turned her on, now that she thought about it, but his eyes definitely did things to her she had never experienced before.

"On your back," he commanded in a monotone. The suddenly blank look on his face alarmed her, but she could not ignore the shivers of anticipation running along her flesh just under her skin.

Meekly, she did as he said, sitting on the stone monument with her legs straight and crossed at the ankle in front of her. The man turned Hojo's camera back on, flicking on the little light on the front and illuminating her naked body and the dark interior of the house of death. His hand shot out and grabbed her ankle, pulling her leg to the side, exposing her further. Kagome willingly spread her legs wider and bent them at the knee, not at all surprised or disturbed when the camera made the sharp clicking sound signaling that he had taken a picture.

"Touch yourself."

She wondered if he noticed that his latest demand had instantly made her wet. Everything Hojo had done to her seemed like nothing when compared to the effect just this man's words had on her body. Bringing a trembling hand to her soaked area, she obeyed his lewd command and brushed against her freshly waxed outer lips. He captured the movement in a photo, the sound making her flinch, but she kept going, growing bolder when she noticed his sharp intake of breath. The camera clicked almost ridiculously fast and Kagome's first and middle finger ventured inside her dripping hole, her thumb rubbing just below her clitoris, showing him what she liked in the hopes that he'd take over. Abruptly, camera still clicking away without ceasing or even slowing down, he held out his index finger, bringing it to her face and forcing it in her mouth through her slightly parted lips. Keeping her eyes on the camera, imagining she could see his face through it, she sucked on the finger like she would a cock, giving him a hint of what she could do. The contact was electric, and he pulled out all too soon, only to shove his finger in the hole she'd never allowed to be violated.

Her eyes watered and she was stunned into breathlessness, mindlessly moving her hand faster to try and make herself relax. Her inner muscles squeezed his thick finger tightly, but he wiggled around and eventually it started to burn in a good way. Involuntarily letting out a low groan, Kagome began to grind against his hand and hers, on the brink of a fabulous climax the likes of which she was quite sure she'd never felt before.

And then he pulled away.

"Please!" she said shakily, her eyes blinded by the light. "Please."

"Beg for it."

Wasn't she doing just that? Eyes blazing, angry at being toyed with, she barked out in a voice quite unlike her usual one, "Give it to me already, you evil moron!"

That shocked a laugh out of him, and even though she hadn't done what he'd said, he stripped himself quickly, leaving only the mostly forgotten Hojo's camera dangling before his bare, muscular, beautifully defined chest. Her greedy eyes tried to squint past the bright light to see more details, but she couldn't. Desperate, she reached out her hands and felt him, her palms making contact with the hard flesh of his abdomen, observing the quivering muscles. If she was the one with the power, she'd be taking pictures of him, and when the night was over she'd make a collage and fix it over an altar and probably masturbate to it every other day rather than daily, just to keep things fresh. It was the first time her hands had ever come in contact with perfection, and she savored, worshiped, and adored it. Him.

"That's enough of that," he growled, cupping her hands almost lovingly and then slamming them down on the hard rock of the tomb above her head.

Kagome cried out, not from the pain she could hardly feel, but from being denied. Wantonly, she arched her back, letting her eyes go partly closed, parting her lips and releasing a small, whining moan to let him know how much she desired him. Words were beyond her now. It seemed to work, and one of his hands automatically dragged down her arm, his thumb brushing against her lower lip before going to her left breast, bringing his palm and grasping it, covering it entirely. She was well endowed, one of the more buxom girls in her class, but his hand was so large that it dwarfed the mass of tissue. He leaned forward and she felt something hot and hard twitch so close but yet not close enough to the place she needed it to be. Kagome almost cried out in joy, wondering if this confirmed the "big hands mean big _other things_ " myth.

A real man at last.

The mysterious stranger brought his head to her breast, his mouth pulling on the nipple before sucking it into his mouth and biting down just shy of savagely. She outright shrieked in pleasure, knowing there would be no going back to boys after this experience. The sound spurred him on, and he attacked her breasts with more voracity than anyone before him. Her breasts had become so sensitive, the pink pearls at the peak more like diamonds, hard and aching. The sensations overwhelmed her, his hungry mouth feasting on what he had taken, and she had the smallest of orgasms, just strong enough for her to dimly recognize it for what it was.

Bringing her arms down from where she had obediently left them above her head, she shoved at his shoulders, disrupting the deliciously maddening activity of his mouth. The man didn't reprimand her, instead understanding her urgency and becoming swept up in it, positioning himself right where she wanted him to be, rubbing the head of his cock against her opening, sending a thousand lightning charged tingles through her entire body starting at the place their most intimate bits of flesh met. Kagome spread her legs as wide as they would go, but the man spread them further, until her muscles burned and she feared she would break.

But all that was nothing when he entered her to the hilt in just a single brutal thrust.

Her ears rang, breathing was impossible, and she wondered if she was torn up down there. The camera he still wore around his neck swung back and forth and she followed its movement with her eyes, until the light was the only thing she saw. It lulled her into a sort of trance, and she relaxed, the unpleasant burning pulsing in her core fading to a mere dull throb. As if sensing she was ready, the man raised her legs, gripping her behind her knees before slowly drawing himself out of her almost all the way. He stayed still for a bit, and she felt like she was at the top of the tallest roller coaster in the world and about to take the stomach-destroying drop to the bottom without a seat belt or protective bar. As someone who had always enjoyed roller coasters and laughed as others screamed when the ride whipped this way and that, up and down, she now felt the compounded fear of the people she had mocked for being "weak". Now she was the weak one, the scared one, the one without control.

A wild thrust broke her train of thought, the camera swinging forward and then back, hitting his chest with a loud smack. Kagome cried out and stars burst behind her eyes, and before she had time to wonder how it was she could have another orgasm when everything hurt so much, he thrust again. Her legs were shaking uncontrollably, but his hands on her skin were so steady. The steadiness he possessed seemed to call to her, to try and seduce her into a state of further acquiescence, into a complete loss of self, but that only made her more frightened and determined to cling to reality even when she knew that in the end, it was futile.

Gasping for breath but still feeling deprived of air, Kagome choked on oxygen. The man above her grunted and sped up, which she had not thought was possible. Mercilessly dropping her right leg, where it fell limply to the stone with hardly a sound, he pressed a button somewhere on the camera, and suddenly the light was no longer constant but flashing like a strobe light, capturing her in the throes of whatever _this_ was. Grabbing her leg again, he moved it to his broad shoulder damp with sweat, moving her other leg as well. His hair brushed across her smooth legs and tickled her, somehow managing to make her even further aroused, a feeling she welcomed as it lessened the pain. Without breaking his tempo, the man cupped her ass in his big hands and lifted her in order to easier use her, seemingly closer now to his own end. But he didn't forget about Kagome. Fingers rubbed at her clit, quick and hard, brutally torturing the already swollen beyond belief red bump. As she was so sensitive, it wasn't long before his rough maneuvering had an effect. Blinded by the still flashing camera, assaulted by both thick fingers and monstrous cock, Kagome came a third time, the exhausted bundle of nerves stinging like a cry of protest. Too worn out to scream or give any other signal that she came, she meekly accepted his growl and the burst of seed that followed it, taking it into herself, amazed at the sensation.

The man collapsed on her, the camera crushed into her flesh and still taking pictures, the light reflecting off her skin and illuminating his features, the handsome, strong details she had nearly forgotten. Before he could pull away and leave her, Kagome pulled his head up, her tired arm straining to hold the weight. His eyes shone in the darkness, their look puzzled, and Kagome brought her lips to his, giving him the softest kiss she had in her, almost timid in its nature. He didn't kiss back, but it didn't bother her. Knowing he wasn't understanding what she was trying to communicate, she pulled away, separating their faces just the slightest bit.

"I love you," she breathed, her lips ghosting across his with every word.

Smiling at his comically shocked expression, Kagome finally let the darkness overtake her, gratefully falling into unconsciousness.

**O\o/O**

Kagome woke up, her eyes flooded with an irritating fluorescent light. It was colder than it had been in the cemetery outside. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she sat up, shivering. Had she been lying on a block of freaking ice?! Glaring down at the thing that was still freezing her ass off, she saw it was a metal tray long enough for her whole body, kind of like a gurney, only there was nothing to cushion her.

"You're awake."

She turned toward the slightly familiar voice that gave her thrills inside. Suddenly, she wasn't so cold. The man was standing above an old woman lying on another gurney like hers. The woman was naked, with a white sheet covering everything below her shoulders. Kagome knew the woman was dead not only by the bluish-grey tint to her skin but because the man was sewing her eyelids shut. She studied his exceptionally beautiful hands, how his strong fingers pulled the special thread taut before stabbing the needle into the cold skin and repeating.

"What are you doing?" Everything felt like a dream.

A few seconds of silence passed while he finished up his sewing, cutting the thread with his teeth, biting it with a loud snap that sounded loud in the echo-prone room. It was fascinating to watch him use his teeth on something that had just traveled through a dead woman's flesh. Kagome sighed. So many things about him intrigued her. She had thought he was just extremely masculine, but she realized now that she had confused masculine with animalistic, perhaps due to the lack of men in her life growing up and the weak boys she had always surrounded herself with making her mistaken. Either way, he was certainly her new and eternal ideal.

"I'm prepping her for her wake," he muttered disinterestedly, taking a brush by the tip of its wooden handle and dusting the woman's wrinkled face with a heavy powder foundation.

Kagome's heart beat faster. "You're an artist," she whispered.

The man looked up at her, one corner of his mouth barely curving upwards. "We prefer to be called morticians."

"I meant what I said," she told him slowly, sliding her legs off the tray and standing. "I love you."

The man sighed, putting aside his brush and backing away from the corpse he had been prettying up. "You must have hit your head pretty hard sometime tonight. Tell me your name and let's get you home."

"Kagome. And I'm not going home," she stated firmly, walking over until she was standing directly in front of him, impressed at how he towered above her even while she stood. "What's your name?"

The man scowled. "Inuyasha. Hurry up and tell me your address."

She shook her head. "I'm staying here." And with that final announcement, she marched her naked and bruised self up the stairs she had spied and straight out the door that led to the rest of the building.

Immediately, her mouth dropped open in awe. The place was like a museum, with the cherry wood floors shiny and scratch-free, equally well kept furniture that seemed older than everyone in her family put together, a giant chandelier straight out of Titanic. And the best part? There were no red velvet ropes to keep her from touching things. Straight away she headed for the hall that she could see led to a kitchen, delighted but not surprised when everything was even better than she had seen in magazines and on cooking shows, all gleaming white and marble. It looked like it had never been used. Suspicious, Kagome skipped over to the cupboards, mildly upset when she saw they were bare. Turning to the huge white refrigerator, she tugged open the doors and saw pizza boxes in the fridge stacked one on top of the other and a huge bucket of ice cream in the freezer. Flicking open the pizza boxes, one by one she saw they were empty, all but the one on the top. Wrinkling her nose in distaste, she moved to the freezer, observing that only a spoonful of ice cream was left of the gallon and that it had melted before being put back in.

"You done invading my privacy yet?"

Blushing, she turned to face him. "Inuyasha," she said quietly, something lighting up in her at the name. "I was going to cook you dinner, but you don't have much here."

He growled, clenching his fists. "I'm not hungry and you _can't stay_!"

"How is it that you live in a mortuary? Shouldn't that be illegal? It would be so easy for some random necrophiliac to just open up his own funeral home and pop open a cold one whenever he or she liked," she mused, grabbing a damp sponge from the sink and cleaning off dried pizza sauce from an area of the marble.

Inuyasha grabbed her wrist and forcefully yanked her away from the counter. "Stop it!" he hissed, squeezing her wrist until she dropped the sponge.

Without realizing what she was doing, Kagome slapped him across the face with her free hand, the loud noise making her nervous, not wanting to experience the feeling of foreboding she'd had in the graveyard. Shocked, he dropped her arm, staring at her as though he'd never seen anything like her before.

"I'm trying to be nice!" she yelled, thinking to hell with it. She wasn't going to spend the rest of her life tiptoeing around some mystical presence. With Inuyasha, she wouldn't have a need to be scared of anything ever again. "I just want to get along," she explained, feeling unreasonably weepy all of a sudden. Tears stung her eyes and she sniffled in embarrassment.

"Aw, fuck," he muttered. "I hate it when they cry."

Tears forgotten, Kagome glared at him. "Have you done this with someone else?" Her rage was evident in her tone, but not in her volume. A muscle in her jaw began to twitch rapidly.

"No!" he shot back, looking every bit the confused male too scared to ask if she was on her period—although he of course knew she wasn't.

Ignoring him, Kagome continued, "How many other girls have you fucked and brought back here?! Did you even bother—"

"Shut it," he demanded, putting a hand over her mouth. "You need to go home."

Licking his palm as spitefully as she could, ignoring the fact he'd just been touching a corpse, Kagome laughed when his hand swiftly went back to his side and he quickly rubbed his palm on his pants in response to her childish act.

"You're going to send me home? Just like that? You're not afraid about what my family will do to you when they find out their innocent little girl has just been raped and brutalized by a local creep who hangs with dead people all day? On Halloween, no less. It's quite the scandal."

"What would you rather me do?" he drawled, his sharp personality retreating behind an uncaring mask. "Kill you?"

She shook her head, grabbing the hand she hand licked and bringing it to her breast, making his eyes widen slightly. "Keep me. Just keep me."

Inuyasha looked like he was about to refuse, his dark eyes darting away from her. Everything inside of her, centering in her solar plexus and moving outwards, was begging some higher power for him to say yes, straining in the hopes that her wish would be noticed and granted. They stood there without moving for some time, both her hands holding his still damp palm against her left breast, her beating heart.

Finally, he looked at her. "How old are you?"

Not wanting to say in case it was a deal breaker but not wanting to lie to the man she loved, Kagome replied, "You first."

He rolled his eyes. "You're crazy. I'm thirty."

Twice her age. That was certainly pushing it, but she wasn't going to let such a small detail as birthdates bother her. "That's okay," she smiled. "I like older men."

Inuyasha sighed, his eyes locked onto hers. "They're gonna look for you, you know."

"I don't care." Her heart jumped. Even though this dream was very new, it was already coming true.

His hands went to her bottom and lifted her onto the counter, with her helping by pushing down with her arms on the marble. Even so, he didn't really need any help at all, he was so strong. Not wanting him to change his mind, Kagome cradled his face in her hands gently, her thumbs caressing his surprisingly soft skin. Not even a hint of stubble was on his jaw. She kissed him on the mouth, almost identical to what she had done in the mausoleum, but this was slightly different. Kagome wasn't just telling Inuyasha she loved him with this kiss, she was proving it.

"That Hojo guy," he murmured, interrupting himself with a few spontaneous kisses along her throat, "he could be a problem. Did anyone know where you two were going tonight?"

Kagome gasped at the feeling of him stroking her lower lips. "N-no. Not that I know of. And Hojo won't be a problem. Nobody will believe a girl disappeared in a graveyard like some kind of urban legend, especially when I told my friends and family I'd be meeting him at a park and skipping out to go to some unspecified party. They'll just think he made something up since I didn't want to have sex with him."

Inuyasha nodded, his face now directly between her spread legs, in front of her core. "I see," he breathed, the air from his mouth tickling her sensitive skin. She shivered and felt herself grow wetter. "You lied to them to stay out later. And they believed you?"

She smirked. "They always do."

His tongue snaked out and met her pussy, licking her daintily, like an overfed cat with a dish of cream, slowly making his way to the top and theatrically flicking her clit. Kagome nearly fell backwards at the sensation, just barely saving herself from an embarrassing injury by wildly flailing out an arm and steadying herself using the side of the refrigerator. She'd gone down on more guys than had gone down on her, true, but she'd still never felt anything quite like what he was doing to her, and some of those guys had been proven experts with a line of girls willing to vouch for their skills. And he had barely even started! Inuyasha smiled against her skin and she tried to stop trembling in order to not further inflate his ego. It wasn't exactly the sensations themselves that were provoking her responses but the fact that it was his work. Something about him, about the air he breathed, the space he inhabited, just got to her. That's why she was able to say something as crazy as "I love you" so soon and in such circumstances. He was her destiny, for better or for worse, and she couldn't help but love him for it. As if sensing her attention was drifting from the here and now, Inuyasha buried his face in her and pulled back, allowing her to see his features covered in her juices. Why was that such a turn on? Licking his lips, he dove right back in, eating her loudly and expertly. She'd never been with a man so enthusiastic about oral sex (at least not about being the giver). His groans were almost as loud as hers, and the smacking noises of enjoyment he made every so often had her panting. Just when she was on the brink of cumming, he pulled away, his face dripping with her fluids and his own saliva. She was upset, of course, but watching him get undressed soothed her somewhat.

Positioning himself between her legs, he scooped some of her juices from her, making sure to brush against her clit, and spread them on himself. "Listen carefully," he growled, his eyes mad with lust. "There are rules." Kagome nodded urgently, afraid to open her mouth lest she say the wrong thing and upset him and ruin their activity. "One: Don't answer the phone. Two: Stay on this floor and the one below, not the ground floor, which is above us, or the basement. Three," he plunged into her, seemingly not able to hold himself back any longer. His eyes closed and he shuddered, and she was worried he'd cum before getting her off. Taking deep breaths, he opened his eyes again, lust warring with sternness in their depths. "Ah, fuck," he groaned after studying her for a few seconds, lust seemingly winning out. "Three, uh, d-don't—" Whining, Kagome pushed her pelvis up and wrapped her legs around him. "Fuck, forget it."

This time was quicker than before but no less pleasurable; in fact, it was even better. This amazed Kagome as she squirted all over his cock while he whispered dirty, vulgar, sexy things to her in a language she was not familiar with but always on the verge of understanding. Usually, she got bored with guys after the first time unless they tried bringing in toys or another person. The longest she had ever lasted in a relationship was two weeks, and that relationship was a secret and with her friend Yuka. Mostly, she hadn't broken things off in order to preserve their friendship, so it was really a relief when she walked in on Yuka in her garage with one of their other friends. It made things not so serious, and now the entire group was able to get together and study and hang out and yes, occasionally fuck, without it being weird and awkward. She jumped from person to person, always craving something and never being satisfied, only temporarily able to cool the fire.

Until Inuyasha.

Again, he came inside of her, the feeling of his skin on hers making her wish she wasn't on the pill for one crazy second or three. Kagome kissed him until he calmed down and pulled out of her, moaning at the loss of him. Immediately, he picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around him once again, tired and sated. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she pressed her face into his hair, smelling him and not feeling the least bit ashamed of it. Some of his semen dripped out of her and made it onto him, but he didn't acknowledge it, instead walking straight through the museum-like living room and into a private bedroom that looked completely Edwardian. Too tired to admire the riches surrounding her, Kagome allowed Inuyasha to gently place her between the sheets and blankets, not caring that she was dirtying what were probably extremely expensive, clean fabrics. He turned to leave, and a small flame of anger lit in her heart.

"Stay with me," she said, forcing her voice to remain soft in order not to set him off. "Please?"

He turned to face her, his expression telling her that the answer would be a firm "no", but his resolve seemed to weaken the longer he looked at her.

"Fine," he said quietly. "But just for a little while."

Kagome grinned at him, the exhilarating feel of triumph that always filled her whenever she got her way, with big issues and little issues, making her laugh a bit. She snuck a peek at his cock, glistening with both their fluids. Inuyasha lay down beside her on top of the blankets, probably not wanting to get too comfortable. She wanted to laugh out loud at that. He'd be sleeping beside her every night for the rest of his life.

Pushing the blankets away, Kagome crawled the short distance to where he was, ignoring his questioning look and going right for his manhood, taking it in her mouth and cleaning it off, not even halfway done when he was fully hard again. Impressed, Kagome finished the job and pulled away just to admire it, giving the tip a loud close-mouthed kiss before swallowing it all again, struggling to reach the base. Not able to achieve that goal, she withdrew and went for his balls, suckling first one and then the other before going back to his prick and gently massaging the sack. It wasn't long before he began to pump into her mouth, choking her, reacting to her coughs by grabbing her hair and forcing her down on him, fucking her face. Her throat and mouth were flooded with his semen and she gulped it down, trying to control her gagging. Out of breath, she collapsed on his chest, nuzzling into what seemed to be his naturally hairless chest.

"Is this your room?" she mumbled curiously after a while.

"No, mine's in the basement. Most of the house is underground," he explained.

Kagome frowned, remembering his rule about staying out of the basement. The ground floor she could understand, not wanting anyone to discover her either, but why couldn't she go in his room? Deciding she had tempted fate too many times that evening, she stowed her questions away for a later date.

"I wanna stay with you forever," she said instead, pressing kisses to his chest and lingering at his nipples, sucking one into her mouth and wondering if he could get hard again.

He could, and they continued their play until dawn.

**O\o/O**

The days turned into weeks which turned into months, and Kagome would be lying if she said she wasn't happy. But there was something that stopped her from being _deliriously_ happy, as she felt she ought to be, and that just wouldn't do. Inuyasha provided for her like a good husband should, ordering real groceries to be delivered at her command instead of pizza. He bought her whatever clothes and shoes and purses and jewelry she wanted, and even though no one would ever see her wear the new things but him, she didn't care, because she only cared about what he thought. No, he wasn't expressing his admiration with words, but he'd jump her every chance he got. Hell, she prepared his lunch every day and took it down to him while he worked and he'd even neglect the bodies and food and fuck her on that metal tray she'd been on when she'd first woken up in his house, hard enough to make the corpse across the room shake. And it was beautiful.

People came every day, usually in the morning, right after they finished breakfast, and then he'd give her a look telling her to be quiet, as if he didn't trust her to not run upstairs and scream about being kidnapped, and she'd swallow an angry reply and give him a kiss, sending him off to work like any wife would, only his work was in their home and she wasn't allowed to mingle with the clients—er, mourners. She'd set the dishes in the sink and tiptoe to the top of the stairs to hide behind the closed door and listen to him work. His voice was so unlike how she knew it to be, so soft and sympathetic, not at all rough and dark. Kagome didn't wonder which was the real him. Instinctively, she knew it to be both. He'd never used that voice with her, but oftentimes when she woke up in the morning, he'd look at her with a face that matched that voice before covering it up with a scowl and demanding breakfast. But still, the emotions lingered in his eyes and she'd smile and obey. When he'd start going over facts and figures and other boring stuff with the clients, she'd go back downstairs and read one of the many books he bought her, not able to watch TV in their bedroom since he'd hear it and come stomping down the staircase and lecture her on what would happen if she was found.

But all that was bearable, it even had its charm. The only thing that stopped her from being truly happy was the fact that he'd go to his room in the basement every day for an hour before it was time to go to bed. Kagome didn't know what it was he did there and he never offered her any information, instead glaring at her whenever she brought it up and telling her to focus only on the things that concerned her. That always led to a fight, which led to them fucking out their feelings, which led to him collapsing next to her and falling into a dead sleep while she stared at him and cried.

On one such night, Kagome finally overcame her fear of the temper tantrum he'd throw if he discovered her in his room. Drying her tears, she slowly slipped out of bed, being extra careful not to make any noise as he was an incredibly light sleeper. It was cold, so she pulled on the big pink robe he had given her just last week. She crept out of their room and down the stairs and onto the level where Inuyasha worked, all dead people safely tucked away inside another room in their respective refrigerated drawers. Opening the door knob that led to his secret basement room, Kagome wondered what she would find. Why did he leave her at that same time every day? Did he just want some time to himself? That would be acceptable. She would allow him to have a man cave, even a boy's night out whenever he wanted. But she wanted to know exactly what he was doing and when he was doing it and how he felt about it and what he was thinking while he did it. Maybe that was a bit much, but she couldn't help it. He was her first love, her everything. She'd given up everything in her old life just to have him and she didn't even regret it, not for a moment. Kagome didn't know why she was so upset over what he was hiding in the first place. She'd gone over different possibilities in her mind, ranging from an embarrassing porn collection to a king's ransom in cocaine. Even so, nothing would turn her away from him.

With a deep breath, she opened the door. The staircase was dark but there was light below, and she wasn't too concerned about stumbling when she was able to see where she'd fall. Slowly, she made her way down, hand along the wall for support. The light flickered every few seconds, suggesting candles. Her brow furrowed. That was a big fire hazard. Did Inuyasha have them lit constantly? At the base of the stairs, she made a right, where the room opened up into the basement proper. It was smaller than she thought it would be. The only things in the room were the dozens of candles, their combined power as bright as one electrical lamp would have been, and a bed. The bed was large and dead center, and she neared it, wanting to inspect the heavily embroidered duvet. A slight lump was in the middle, but she didn't realize until she was nearly touching the bed that the lump was a person. A still, pale person.

One of the things she had thought she might find was evidence of necrophilia. Even though she deemed it unlikely, since it seemed impossible he'd have time to fuck a corpse for an hour after already fucking her all day and still have enough energy to fuck her in bed. Still, his stamina had amazed her before, had even tired her out. Another possibility had been he rented out the space to people and _they_ would be the corpse fuckers. But how would he sneak them past her? There were no windows or entrances other than the one she'd just used. She'd also considered him being a director of necrophilia pornography, which she had heard existed. Or maybe he just took pictures of naked dead people and sold them. Whatever.

Peeling back the blankets, it was like her hands were being controlled by something other than her own brain. She wanted to run and forget she ever saw this woman, but she couldn't. The woman was in a wedding dress, and there were droplets of blood here and there, blood long since turned a rusty brown. Upon closer inspection, Kagome realized the woman vaguely resembled herself. Her eyes filled with tears.

"That's Kikyo." Kagome turned around, heart beating like she was having a heart attack. She hadn't even heard him come in, hadn't even noticed the fluttering of the flames, so concentrated she'd been on the body of the woman in the bed. Inuyasha was there, alright, and he had put on his pajama pants, the ones he only ever wore during breakfast since they always slept together naked. "She is my wife."

The tears came falling. True, she and Inuyasha had never been formally married, but she liked to think God had decided and had married their souls for them. The idea seemed even more stupid in light of this new development.

"Wh-wh-wh—" She couldn't even ask what or why, couldn't even say a thing.

Inuyasha neared her, his eyes never once leaving the face of the dead woman. "Once a month," he said dreamily, "I have to make a sacrifice." He passed her and sat by Kikyo's side, taking a lock of her listless hair and rubbing it between his fingers. "Every month, another girl. Beautiful, young. Then she won't decay. She'll stay the most beautiful woman in the world." Finally, he looked up at her, his eyes like a stranger's. "Soon, she'll come back."

"You're crazy!" Kagome finally managed. Each second she spent in the basement, another piece of her heart crumbled. "Did you—Have you been with her while you were with me?" she whispered, hating herself for being jealous and crushed instead of outraged and disgusted.

Inuyasha looked away. "I… I tried." He was quiet for a few seconds, staring at the dead woman. "After I was with you that first time, it never worked with her. I couldn't."

"But before. You did it before," she choked out, bile rising in her throat.

He nodded. "Whenever it got too lonely, whenever the waiting was tearing me apart, she was always here for me. But then I met you." Inuyasha looked at her again, his dark eyes flashing in the candlelight. "It was like she knew. She stopped accepting sacrifices like she used to. I make one, and she's bones the next day."

"E-every day, then? You've been making… _sacrifices_ every day?"

"I'm so close!" he burst out suddenly. "I've been working for years, and we were so close. She was finally—"

Inuyasha cut himself off, his eyes widening and his mouth dropping open in a horrified gasp as he stared at her. Wondering what he was looking at, Kagome looked down at herself, the hair on the nape of her neck standing up. She was _glowing_. Pink light emitted from her skin, a darker pink than that of her robe. It was everywhere, and it shone through the terrycloth she wore without being dimmed. Head darting back up to ask him what was happening, she saw the woman in the bed, _Kikyo_ , glowing as well, although her light was a bluish-gray. Kagome opened her mouth to scream, everything becoming too much for her, but the dead woman glowed brighter, her eyes shooting wide open and revealing clouded over, milky orbs.

Inuyasha jumped off the bed and stood in front of a trembling Kagome, backing them both up. "Kikyo, no!" he protested, his voice that of his kind, sensitive self, only incredibly frightened. "You can't have Kagome!"

The bluish-gray light flared out from the dead woman and completely encompassed him to the point that Kagome could no longer make out his form. When it finally retreated back into its cold vessel, what was left behind where Inuyasha had been standing was a creature with silver hair, fangs, claws, and animal ears on top of its head. Golden eyes flashed and stared at her, seeming more scared of her reaction than the corpse with supernatural powers in the bed.

"Who are you?!" Kagome screamed, already knowing. " _What_ are—"

"Please, Kikyo, not Kagome!" the thing pleaded in Inuyasha's voice. "I need her!"

"What's going on?" she whimpered, watching her happiness collapse.

"She wants your soul," he explained in a hushed voice. That presence, the one she had felt in the graveyard and then never again, nearly overwhelmed her by its sudden intense reappearance. Inuyasha turned back to her, his eyes sorrowful. "Run."

Kagome obeyed immediately, scurrying to the bottom of the stairs before coming to an abrupt halt. It was hard, but she swallowed the burning lump in her throat and turned back. "No. Not without you!"

Inuyasha glared at her before nervously glancing between her and the corpse. She made sure to bring all her feelings of the past five months to her eyes and face, telling herself that he was still the same man, even if everything had gone incredibly, ridiculously, insanely wrong. These revelations didn't change what she felt for him; she doubted anything really could. Really, having a dead wife he magically kept fresh by murdering young girls was only half as bad as the worst things she could imagine. In her book, his good qualities far outweighed his bad ones.

Growling, Inuyasha charged over to her faster than she had ever seen anyone move, grabbing her wrist and yanking her on his back. Assuming he was finally giving her a piggy back ride, Kagome yelped and clung to his hair with her fists as he took off up the stairs and up three levels until they were on the ground floor, the one she'd never seen and now didn't have time to observe. He kept running, taking her through the cemetery, the wisps of mist looking like ghosts in the dark. Her fear finally hit her full force and she buried her face in Inuyasha's silver hair, wanting to throw up and expel the cold, clammy feeling that had made a home in her gut. Deciding to take a quick peek after a few minutes of hiding, Kagome's heart leapt with hope when she recognized the street complete with working streetlights, the only thing separating them from the relative safety of the road that rickety old iron gate even Hojo had managed to break through. Unexpectedly, Inuyasha seemed to change his mind and instead veered toward the right, taking them into a large forest she had always seen when passing by but had never really acknowledged, thinking it unremarkable. Quickly, he dodged trees both young and old, his feet hardly ever touching the ground. After darting about here and there, Kagome began to feel genuinely sick, not used to such a dizzying form of travel. Finally, he jumped up instead of ahead, and next thing she knew, she was relaxing high in the branches of a tree. Dazed, she looked down, knowing she probably shouldn't, but instead of reeling at the tremendous height, Kagome gasped at the sight of a pile of bodies, some skeletons and some still fleshy.

"The sacrifices," Inuyasha explained unnecessarily, having since dropped to a branch directly below her.

"Where are we?" she asked, leaning back against the rough trunk.

His ears twitched, but he did not look up at her. "Where she died. Where she will not follow."

Brushing tears away before they had the chance to fall, Kagome coughed to get her voice back to normal. "What's going on?"

"You must have noticed I'm not human," he said quietly, going from sitting cross-legged to a crouch, turning and facing her but staring at a place above her head. "Well, not completely human. I'm a half-demon. Kikyo and I were married a long time ago, and I killed her."

"You what?" Kagome asked, not able to believe it of him. Sure, he could be rough and mean and even violent, but to murder someone he loved?

"It was an accident," he said softly. "We were attacked. I jumped in front of her to save her, but my wound didn't kill me. It only changed me. I killed the man, and then I turned on her. Over the years, I've learned to control it, but back then it was completely new, and I didn't know…" His voice had become tortured, and he trailed off. "When I came back to myself, she was already gone. She didn't deserve to die like that."

Kagome nodded. "Did they?" she asked, gesturing towards the girls on the ground. When he didn't respond, she sighed and continued. "How long have you been killing for her?" Silence. "How long, Inuyasha? I need to know."

"Five hundred years," he croaked. "But I couldn't kill you. I didn't even want to after a while."

Her muscles relaxed somewhat when formerly every fiber of her being had been tense and on edge. She felt oddly depressed. "I see. I guess you really love her a lot, then."

Their eyes connected, his hard and bright and hers just slightly wetter than they should be. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted.

"Inuyasha…"

At the sound of the dry, hoarse voice, Inuyasha grabbed Kagome and took her even higher up into the trees, his leap nearly silent, sounding like nothing more than just a breeze rattling the leaves. His hand covered her mouth just as a figure stumbled into the clearing, its halting steps and dirty white wedding gown identifying the being as Kikyo. It or she or whatever you want to call it was rapidly decaying, nothing like the pale young woman Kagome had glimpsed in that basement bed. The thing was less of a zombie but not quite a mummy, its flesh looking petrified, as though made of a hard wood.

"Inuyasha," it rasped again. "Why are you hiding the girl from me?"

Inuyasha pressed her close to him for a brief second before jumping away from her and higher into the branches then leaping two trees away from where she was. Kagome shivered and tightened her robe, it having long since come untied and revealing a line of flesh down the center of her body. A few moments later, she noticed a movement in her peripheral vision and turned to see Inuyasha jumping down from his tree, down to the ground to meet the specter.

He seemed to force himself to square his shoulders, facing her head on. His voice started out with a slight tremor before becoming strong at the end. "I will find you another sacrifice, Kikyo, I'll give them to you every hour, even. But you absolutely cannot have Kagome."

It seemed to have a slight trouble speaking now. "Nev…er…wanted…sacrifice."

"But I wanted to be with you again!" Inuyasha cried. "I needed to tell you how sorry I was, how sorry I _am_."

Kagome felt so separated from the situation, like she was watching some movie but couldn't quite connect to any of the characters enough to follow the plot.

"Never blamed you…Inuyasha." Fascinated, Kagome watched Kikyo's eyes dry until they were the size of raisins and just as shriveled before disappearing. She wondered how Inuyasha could stand to watch it up close and still have that heartsick expression on his face. Unknowing of her audience, the being continued. "In your…nature. Always knew…you were my…scorp…i…on. " Kikyo looked to the trees with her hollow eye sockets. "Down, girl. One…we…need…"

Kagome's heart stilled in her chest. She had gone from being annoyed at the slow, halting speech to being filled anew with a great fear.

"Kikyo, no!" Inuyasha shouted. His hands balled into fists, and his posture changed subtly. He seemed prepared to fight. " _You can't have her!_ "

"Don'…wan'…her. Girl. Calls…"

Her nails dug into the branch she was sitting on. A large part of her wanted to scream down at the thing and ask what it was talking about, but she knew better than to reveal her exact location. Kikyo dragged her stiff limbs to the base of the tree Kagome was in, stepping on the bodies like they were stairs. Some of them went tumbling, and the frightened girl recognized one school uniform shirt, sleeves still rolled up to the elbows. So that was what had happened to Hojo, the only one to know where she was. And his death hadn't even served a purpose like the sacrifices had. There was no time for her to mourn or even process the information, as Kikyo had reached the trunk of the tree and raised her arm, a wave of that power in the air vibrating upwards and breaking the branch she was on. With a cry of her name, Inuyasha leapt into the air and caught her before she could fall into the messy pyramid of bones and rotten meat. He cradled her close as she finally let go and sobbed, flinging her arms around his neck for comfort and support. Still, she couldn't take her eyes off that thing, Kikyo, his wife. As Inuyasha concentrated on whispering comforting things to her when she just wanted him to run and take her away from there, Kikyo lurched towards them and, with a surprising amount of force, dug her long nails into the delicate, unprotected skin of Kagome's arms, yanking her back and out of his grasp.

Before she could even scream, it was over.

The nails in her flesh turned darker and darker until they were a deep brown and Kagome recognized it as pure wood, no human material as an ingredient. The wedding dress was in shreds at its dry, brittle roots. Thousands of lights released into the air, disappearing after a few scant seconds. She even forgot to struggle, marveling at the terrible beauty of the display. She knew what they were, she felt it in her gut. The souls of the sacrifices, free from their prison at last. One light lingered, glowing pink with a silver tint, and stayed at eye level, as though studying her. Something inside of Kagome was sated, a hunger without a proper name fulfilled. No more would she feel compelled to fruitlessly try and fill a void with sex and destruction. Inuyasha had begun the healing, and Kikyo had finished it. The light faded to nothing.

Lunging backward, Kagome broke away from the dead tree that held her in its grasp, bits of her flesh tearing off, her wounds just deep enough that she knew they'd leave a scar, a small reminder. Inuyasha's lips were parted and she could see his fangs, his golden eyes were filled with a loss he did not yet comprehend. Silently, she vowed to help him get over it.

"She's gone," he whispered, his arms not going around her when she stumbled over and embraced him. "Kikyo is dead. The God Tree failed." Feeling a portion of his pain, Kagome trembled and hugged him tighter. "And you…" he continued. "She gave you her soul."

"It was always meant to be mine," she replied, pulling away and wiping the few tears from his face that he had allowed to fall. "Just like you were."

Inuyasha smiled at her tremulously and she could tell it was only for her benefit. Almost immediately, his face fell again. "I trapped her there, inside herself. I trapped her there with all those others, and I kept a part of you from yourself your whole life. And I lied to you, and I—"

Kagome kissed him hard on the mouth, mostly just to shut him up. "You didn't know. You only did what you thought you had to. You just loved her so much."

"She never said anything before, I didn't even know—" he continued, and she worried he would become hysterical and hurt himself.

"She knew you loved her," she said softly, laying a hand on his cheek. "I can feel it, inside. Right here." Kagome took his hand and placed it between her breasts. What had been heartbreaking before, thinking of him loving a woman to the point of murdering for her, was nothing now. Now she just wanted him to be at peace. A part of her sensed that had been Kikyo's last wish, a duty passed down to her.

Inuyasha's hand was still on her robe for a while, his face clearly showing his rapidly changing emotions. Grief, anger, sorrow, rage, regret. Finally, he moved his hand so that his fingers just barely snuck under her robe, his thumb caressing her skin.

"But do you know?" he murmured, his eyes downcast, thick lashes almost completely concealing the color she'd love to get used to.

Kagome took his hand in both of hers and brought it to her face, willing him to look at her as she kissed his fingers one by one, heedless of the claws that had slashed through so many.

"I know you're all mine now," she said, a small smile on her lips as he glanced at her before quickly looking away. "And I've always been yours."

Suddenly, he ripped his hand away. "Fuck, Kagome, how can I be yours when I've done all this?!" he stressed urgently, holding out his arms. "Everyone I've killed, even Kikyo. How can you want a psycho like me?!"

She glared at him. "Has it ever occurred to that selfish little brain of yours that not everything is about you?" He gaped at her and it fueled her speech. "What do you want to do? Turn yourself in to the police and explain that you're this super old demon dude who killed a whole bunch of people to resurrect your dead wife, only that didn't quite work out so now you're shacking up with your teenage girlfriend who just happens to be a local girl who's been missing for five months?" At the blank look on his face, Kagome stomped her foot and released a growl of frustration. "You know how you can make things right, Inuyasha?"

He shook his head.

"You take me home," she said in a low, smooth voice, stepping closer to him. "You throw me on the bed." Another step. "And you fuck me until you forget you were ever lonely."

Inuyasha nodded, his eyes comically wide. "I'll do anything, Kagome. I'll take care of you forever, and we'll get married as soon as this generation passes and people forget your face," he promised, reaching for her hand.

"We're already married," she informed him. "Now take me home and make me yours all over again."

Hand in hand, they walked away from the scene of a thousand crimes. Morning dawned and a little breeze that would have sounded like a contented sigh if there had been anyone there to listen played in the branches of the dead tree so close to the massive God Tree. It lingered until the sun rose fully, finally dissipating with the dew.

**Author's Note:**

> Note: The original ending that came to me involved Kikyo being angry at Inuyasha for killing her and keeping her trapped in her body. She would have shot him with an arrow and then disintegrated, mission accomplished. Only instead of killing him, it would have sent him into his full demon rage and Inuyasha would immediately attack Kagome. He'd recover right after, and as she bled out in his arms, finding an element of peace in her death, he'd promise her he'd make it so that they'd see each other again, whatever it takes (meaning more freaking sacrifices) and Kagome would die horrified. But I just can't stand not having a happy ending, so I did this instead.
> 
> Happy Halloween!


End file.
